Thinking iInside the Box
NZer Chris Moller is one wall of expat architecture firm, Amsterdam’s S333 Studio for Architecture and Urbanism. The firm has won several international competitions. A winning entry currently being completed is a housing…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Best Supporting Landmass
Tourists lured by LotR: “Too bad they don’t give Oscars for ‘best supporting landmass’. If they did New Zealand’s role in Lord of the Rings would have swept that award”, reports travel editor Anne…
Paul Leads Sevens Revival
Under question marks as to his ability to cope with the code switch from league to union, Henry Paul answers his critics with a “series of virtuoso performances” in England’s Hong Kong Cup Sevens victory. “He was…
Deep Sea Wonder
NZ scientists catch the biggest octopus ever found, a four-meter 75 kg giant hauled from 3,000 feet deep waters near the Chatham Islands. “It’s extremely deep, it’s extremely large, it’s the first recorded in the South Pacific,…
Z-files: Conspiracy Theory
“Pretty unlikely”, is the way Helen Clark responds to allegations that her predecessor David Lange received death threats (“liquidate him”) from former US vice-pres Dan Quayle over his government’s anti-nuclear stance.
Tuatara: Taking it Easy?
BBC News features research undertaken by Victoria University Tuatara Research Group (Professor Charles Daugherty and student Nicola Nelson) into the habitat of New Zealand’s “living fossil”, the tuatara. “They’ve been around since the time of the dinosaurs, so…
Wellywood Story
LA film producers look to the edge for inspiration in an attempt to reverse the trend of productions increasingly being shot in foreign locations to cut costs: “Los Angeles is not like Wellington”, says…
Give ’em a Taste Of…
The “dramatic” Crossings Sauvignon Blanc 2001 out of Marlborough’s Awatere Valley “blazes across the palate with concentrated, uncomprimising flavours of pear, herbs, juniper and – dare I say – kiwi” and the New York Post finds…
Paralympics Gold
New Zealand’s only representatives at the Paralympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Rachael Battersby and Steve Bayley, do their country proud winning four gold and two bronze medals between them. “We didn’t have too many expectations”,…
Flight of the Crowe
“To some, Russell Crowe is still a bit of a Hando – there’s that smouldering, explosive edginess”. For Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard it was Crowe’s “physicality and charisma…his intellect, his mental…
Job with Perks
“A champion no one knew. A finish no one can forget.” In New Zealand’s greatest golfing moment since Bob Charles won the British Open in 1963 Craig Perks shot a stunning final round to clinch the Players’…
Skin Deep
Ta moko retrospectively finds its way into an icon of colonialism: the museum. The Skin Deep exhibition at Britain’s National Maritime Museum, traces the development and diversity of tattoo over the last two…
Kiwi “Who Was Who” Goes Online
A fantastic resource for exploring over 3000 NZer’s who have ‘made their mark’ on our history. The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography puts the entire contents of the previous print Dictionary of New Zealand Biography…
Sir Ian swoons for our free land
Sir Ian McKellen: “I fell for New Zealand rather heavily. It’s not just the environment, though that does do something to your head…it’s discovering the culture, one which is extremely relaxed and liberal”. And…
Oscar post-script
Solace for those lamenting that the southern cross didn’t shine brighter on Hollywood’s star spangled banner: “A Beautiful Mind was a Good Film. Not a brilliant film. If Peter Jackson had directed it, it might have…
Oscar Post
They’ll need a nui kete: The technical and creative talent of the NZ film industry acknowledged with Oscars. The Andrew Adamson directed Shrek takes best animated feature. Peter Jackson’s first installment in the Lord…
Runs in the Family
“I might have more than 5,000 test runs – but he makes 40 million bucks a movie!”, proclaims Kiwi cricket legend Martin Crowe about cousin Russell.
School of Hard Knocks
England casts envious eyes on Lincoln’s NZ Cricket High Performance Centre: “An opera singer and a former primary school headmaster have much to do with New Zealand’s present official ranking as the fifth-best team…
Kakapo’s Getting It On
The world’s “rarest, heaviest, and only nocturnal and flightless” parrot, NZ’s native kakapo, enjoys a record breeding season with 22 chicks hatching on Whenua Hou, a small island off Stewart Island. Thanks to the bumper brood, kakapo…
Don’t Dream it’s Over
7 Worlds Collide, Neil Finn’s acclaimed live album and testament to his “prodigious talent.” is also Finn’s statement of “relevance and intent. It’s one to believe in” with “7 Worlds” worth of guests: including…
This is Our Youth
“Highly talented” 19-year-old Anna Paquin combines “prim formality of speech with an argumentative sexual ardour” as she stars alongside Hayden Christensen and Jake Gyllenhaal in the London staging of This is Our…
Wanderlust: On the Beaten Track
A British lecturer has been funded to back-pack around NZ in the name of academic enquiry as the twentysomething MTV generation hit the road with wanderlust in their eyes: “Research done so far suggests that backpacking is…
Edge-zone
“One of the greatest ever test innings … unbelievable savagery”. Nathan Astle produced the most astounding display of cricketing artistry in hitting the fastest double-century in test cricketing history in the first test against England, reaching 200 off…
“Swift and edgy”…
Denver Post review of Margaret Mahy’s new book 24 Hours. “Her writing is clean and spare, as lucid in describing the ponderous weight of a backpack as in narrating an unnerving car…
Jihad … whoops, I mean Shihad
NZ rockers Shihad undergo cosmetic change post-Sept 11 after concerns were raised about the band name’s similarity to the word jihad, (meaning holy war). The name Shihad was taken from a mis-spelling…
A Russian soul
Joanna Wood’s “beautifully written” biography of “short story master” Katherine Mansfield, Katerina: The Russian World of Katherine Mansfield, details the New Zealand-born writer’s lifelong passion for everything Russian: “She liked to wear Russian clothes,…
Shadow play
The allure of the artistic life, “the journey towards the light” is the central concern of Maurice Gee’s “thoughtful” new novel Ellie and the Shadow Man, reviewed by Nicola Walker.
Black Crowe
“I was a kid faced with adult fury. This is tattooed on my brain”, recalls Russell Crowe in this Irish Independent interview about growing up in New Zealand as a 14 year-old part-time schoolboy,…
Bugger. New Zealand creatives doing it better
Australian advertising, left in the mud by a Cannes Gold Lion winning Toyata Hilux ute, barks enviously about creative NZ: “many an advertising executive here would give a black BMW to get approval from…
Conquerors’ Offspring in Everest Assault
Forty-nine years and a generation or two on, Peter Hillary, son of Sir Edmund, and Tenzing Tashi, grandson of Norgay, will make their own assault on Mount Everest next month to launch a year of celebrations…
The Response: “Anything But Dull”
Ellie’s provocations do not go unanswered with fans and citizens coming to the defence of the land and people. NZ enthusiast Marianne Curphey: “What makes this country different is that it doesn’t regard wildness as something…
Diabetes Breakthrough #2
New Zealand biotechnology company Diatranz will run clinical trials, in the Cook Islands, of an experimental diabetes treatment which once in place start making diabetes-curing insulin. The controversial treatment involves transplanting cells from pigs…
Stephenson wins UK Book of the Year Award
Not the Nine O Clock News comedian turned psychotherapist turned biographer, NZ-Edged Pamela Stephenson wins the book of the year prize at the British Book Awards for her “frank and often harrowing” account of…
Riding On
Maz Quinn proves he’s no grommet as New Zealand’s first representative on surfing’s elite World Championship Tour and sets the pace during the opening round on Australia’s Gold Coast. “I’m stoked to get through, I’m flying…
Kiwi Prof Named Head of International Federation of Accountants
Professor of Accounting and Public Policy at Victoria University, Wellington, Ian Ball named chief executive of the world’s top accountancy body, the New York based International Federation of Accountants. “Ian is ideally suited to lead IFAC during…
The most feared woman on the internet?
NZer Rebecca Wilson (“director of leaves and petals” at the experimental Dutch Arts’ Foundation Studio for Electro-instrumental Music) postulated as as a real identity behind Net legend Netochka Nezvanova. Nezyanova has a…
This is Not the New Zealand Edge
Guardian Netjetter Ellie finds Godzone = dullzone, writing that you may need a thesaurus to do New Zealand’s beauty justice, but unfortunately that doesn’t make the country any more interesting: “One of the most frequently heard compliments…
Don’t bank on it
“Maverick film producer” Kiwi John Maynard, (All Men Are Liars, An Angel At My Table co-produced with Jane Campion) is nominated for Best Film by the Film Critics Circle of Australia for The Bank…
The Milligan Side-step
Revered and irreverent icon of comedy ex-Goon and Bad Jelly author Spike Milligan passed away on 26 Feb. A huge rugby fan with many NZ connections, he never got his biggest rugby wish: to have Willie…
Oxford, Sorbonne, Harvard … Multiversity?
A radical new education model is questioning the relevance of Western/colonial education system and the university model of higher learning. The project is called “Multiversity” and will focus on those supposedly excluded from First World education, Asia,…
NZ: Stroppy Sheilas & Mana Wahines
Hauling a caravan behind a vintage Valiant, the Adventure Divas crew do New Zealand. Along the way they shoot pool with young film-maker Sima Urale, chill in Wellington with documentarian Gaylene Preston, are welcomed into the…
“Come Together”
Wearing a traditional Maori cloak of native bird feathers, the Queen calls on New Zealanders to work together to resolve lingering differences between indigenous Maori and the Government. Elizabeth II was on her 10th tour of…
Cometh the Hour
Nathan Astle comes to play with “a superb and dominating” unbeaten 122 for the Black Caps to help them take the series 3-2 over “plucky losers” England and deservedly finish the summer with a trophy. Hitting the…
NZ Founding Father of British Anthropology
Sir Raymond Firth, one of the world’s most prominent anthropologists, emeritus professor at London University, Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, and recipient of first Leverhulme medal (given to scholars of exceptional…
First
Wellington’s City Gallery hosts a major retrospective of the work of internationally renowned Australian artist Tracey Moffat. Curated by Lara Strongman and Paula Savage, the important 15 year survey of her film, video and…
NYNZ – fringe thrills
Chris Niles‘s new novel Hell’s Kitchen well-received in the Big Bad Apple: “Here’s a novel that’s crowded, rushed, excited, mixed-up, fun, dangerous and a little dirty. In other words, it perfectly…
Pleasantly Rough: 7 Worlds Collide
Neil Finn’s latest album, 7 Worlds Collide brings together Pearl Jams’ Eddie Vedder, Tim Finn, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and ex-Smith’s legend Johnny Marr. BBC: “Finn is a consumate master of his craft”.
Bafta – Remembered Gold
Lord of the Rings is ready to cast its spell on the Oscars after bewitching the Baftas with five awards, including best film and best director, for Peter Jackson: “I wanted to make films…
Progressive Governance
Prime Minister Helen Clark joins leaders of “third way” governments from five continents at a Progressive Governance Conference in Stockholm. “The post-September 11 environment requires not just a military response but much broader international cooperation”, says Helen Clark. “If…
King of the Rings
“New Zealand has always reserved its greatest adulation for sporting giants like Richard Hadlee and Jonah Lomu, but a place must now be found on the victory dais for director Peter Jackson What…
“Sweet As”
Next stop Queenstown – “an adrenalin-fuelled, hyperactive, big scream of a town where tourists go for one of two reasons: either to jump from a plane, mountain or bridge, or to watch others do…
University Challenge
Roger Barnard, chairman of linguistics at University of Waikato, argues in The Guardian that sharp increases in enrollments of Chinese students at NZ universities and polytechnics requires an urgent response by staff and administrators to meet the…
Raining at Sundance
Christina Jeff’s evocative feature Rain screens at the Sundance Film Festival with Merata Mita’s portrait of painter Ralph Hotere, Hotere, and short bursts of edge cinema in Adam Steven’s Beautiful, Tainui Stephen’s…
Ocean’s 11 = Moonshine
Ernest Rutherford’s musings on the improbability of the development of nuclear weapons because of the large scale industrial resource needed to do so act as a trope for Phillip Kerr’s New Statesman review of the heist…
Skating Away
In the popular cartoon series about Californian skateboarders, the Rocket Power kids skate across New Zealand as the gang enters the NZ Junior Waikikamukau Games, an extreme sports competition that includes wind-surfing, skating,…
Kevin Smith Farewelled
One of New Zealand’s best loved screen stars, Kevin Smith, dies aged 38, in a Beijing Hospital. Best known for playing Ares in the hit series Xena:Warrior Princess, Smith suffered head injuries in a…
